Nichols

Talcott Nichols
Professor Rines
UWRT 1101
26 April 2015
Final Reflection
This semester has been long and very informative. I have learned so much about writing
over these past few months. Some of the assignments were very interesting while others I just
couldnt wait to be done with. Even thought it may not have been a pleasing assignment,
breaking them down, I still learned a lot from them.
The in-class experience was fairly enjoyable. It was fun to have conversations about
different topics (even though sometimes no one wanted to speak). The in-class peer workshops
were helpful to me because the people who reviewed my papers usually caught things I had not.
The peer workshops also helped give me ideas on ways to improve and move my papers
forward.
The smallest of the assignments, the Daybook Entries, was a bumpy road. These entries
were a 5-minute written exercise on a topic question chosen by a volunteer student. Therefore,
depending on the posed question, these could be very thought provoking or rather boring. I
enjoyed the ones that elicited opinionate responses from everyone. Hearing and sharing different
opinions on these subjects was very eye opening not only to the variety of people in the world
but also the variety in which they think. For me the daybook entries didnt feel like they were
helping my writing at first. Looking back though, they forced me to come up with ideas faster
than I am used to. I typically take forever to start a paper because I want to know what I am
going to write about. These assignments helped me see that I just needed to start writing

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anything at all, and then form it later. The daybook entries I chose for my portfolio were ones
that I found the most interesting. Since I found them the most interesting, I believe they show my
true writing with thoughts flowing.
The Discussion Forums were similar to the daybook entries as far as interest; they had
their ups and downs. The forums were an assignment in which our task was to read a section or
chapter and answer questions posted by the professor. In addition to our posted response to the
topic, we also had to respond to at least one other classmate. The forums were more interesting
in the beginning of the semester because I had never participated in an online forum before,
especially for a grade. It was fun to see how far I could go with play on words, particularly with
the titles of posts, and still show understanding of the topic in question. Shortly into the semester
though, this became far more taxing than enjoyable. As work piled up in other classes it became
harder and harder to put more time into the forum posts. It also became harder to post thoughts
towards the end semester because I thought the topics werent as thought provoking as the Genre
Analysis was at the start. Although, the forums were still a great way to constantly see writing
from other students. This was helpful to see how others constructed sentences and made ideas
flow, as these were the areas I was most concerned about.
For my portfolio I had to choose five of my forum posts and five of my responses to
showcase. The five posts I chose to display in my portfolio were the ones I enjoyed the most.
These were the ones I put the most effort into. For the five forum responses, I chose ones in
which I challenged or disagreed with the original poster. I tried to stay away from the I really
like how you said responses, that I saw a lot of.
The Genre Analysis was first big paper that most of the beginning forum topics were on.
This was the first paper that really tested how good (or bad) my writing was. I have never been

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very confident in my writing and it was a great start to becoming a better writer. The definition,
Genre a specific type of music, film, or writing, is a very elementary definition. In class we
broke down the meaning of genre and what it means to be a genre. The Genre Analysis was our
chance to break down a genre of our choice to show how it is really a genre. This paper was the
most enjoyable assignment because I felt like I could write about what I wanted to, while also
fulfilling assignment requirements. The whole genre topic was a huge paradigm shift for me. It
was interesting breaking down what a genre is while also completely changing the meaning of
the word. The depth that we can go into analyzing a genre is almost infinite. The Genre Analysis
was a great start to working on my writing abilities. It also taught me that there is no right way,
but more the understandable and accepted ways to write. In the portfolio, I added every part of
the assignment to show the changes that I made over the semester.
The next big graded piece was the Micro-Ethnography. Again, in class we talked about
what it meant to be a discourse community specifically using John Swales six characteristics to
define a discourse community. For this assignment we had to pick a community we wanted to
explore and find out if it was defined as a discourse community using Swales six characteristics.
In order to accomplish this we were instructed to conduct two 30-minute observations as well as
interview two members of the community. Once we gathered all of our information we also had
to put together a presentation about our community and present it to the class.
Working through the Micro-Ethnography seemed endless. This assignment was my least
favorite due to the type of study. Im not to keen on studying people or cultures. I also felt that I
did not have enough time to pick a community that I felt more interested in and have easy access
to. That being said, the study was still very interesting breaking down all of the communities into
easily recognizable pieces. Much like the Genre Analysis, the break down of a community was

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very informative. The comparison of two sets of workers at two different franchise stores not
being a discourse community because they did not communicate was interesting. I believe the
Micro-Ethnography helped expand my writing style knowledge. Having to use recorded
interviews as well as field notes was very new to me. Not only that, having to actually perform
the interviews and observations was new. Every new technique I learn can be used at a later
time.
In the portfolio I chose to put my presentation on the landing page to act as an
introduction to the project. For more in-depth information on the project I also added all the
other sections of the project including the field notes and interview questions. Adding all of these
sections will hopefully show how I utilized the information gathered in this new writing style.
As a writer, I think I have learned a lot of new techniques that will make my writing
better and easier. Since I am generally more science and math inclined I was dreading taking a
writing class at the beginning of the semester. This class has definitely helped me with my
writing form and confidence. When I started to work on the very first assignment, it would take
me forever to even start writing. Now starting has become much easier. I would have to say that
this is the biggest thing I will take-away from this class. The realization that all I have to do is
just start writing will stay with me forever. Although, there is obviously a ton more I need to
work on as far as my writing goes, this semester has definitely been a big writing confidence and
knowledge boost for me.